The only good thing about 2016 at this point is that it’s leading into 2017, which will offer a bevy of new movies ready for dissection, speculation and, inevitably, ridicule. One of the movies on the slab is KONG: SKULL ISLAND, the newest remake of the classic monster flick from 1933, which will lead into a monster mash with Godzilla. The flick will take place during Vietnam when new forms of warfare were being toyed with, a period that seems logical for the movie now after seeing the footage. However, picture a world where this wasn't the setting. Twist!
During an interview with Empire, director Jordan Vogt-Roberts spoke about the original script he read when he first got the job, saying it was initially set during a vastly different period:
The script I first read took place in 1917. But when I started talking to the Legendary [Entertainment] guys, I was thinking, 'What weird King Kong movie would I want to see?' So I pitched them the Vietnam War connection, literally thinking they were gonna laugh me out of the room. And to Legendary's credit, they said, 'Cool. Let's figure it out.' The aesthetics of that time mixed with King Kong makes for an incredible genre mash-up.
A cool new piece of concept art was dropped along with the quote, depicting a raging Kong not caring about proper fire safety equipment because he’s just a badass like that:
To quote Kip from Napoleon Dynamite, “It’s pretty cool I guess.”
Going back to the quote I have to say Roberts’ pitch was a smart one, because even though 1917 and World War I could be an interesting setting for the pic it’s not that different from anything set in the 30’s. However, the Nam’ era is a drastic enough shift from what else we’ve seen to make everything feel fresh. As for the art it’s an undeniably cool image, and it looks like the final product was tweaked from this to look a little less gorilla-esque, as to make it feel more like a monster than just a giant ape like in the Peter Jackson version. You can see so in the longer cranium depicted in the art, as compared to Kong’s more circular head in the trailer. Man, those gorilla identification courses sure are paying for themselves.
Kong returns on March 10 with Tom Hiddleston, Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson, John Goodman, John C. Reilly and more.